When buyers make a purchase, they can see which of their friends have purchased from the seller and how many likes the product or seller has.

Buyers potentially have more confidence in purchasing on Copious, particularly from smaller sellers who have been squeezed out of eBay by larger sellers. For example, if a photographer selling his wares on Copious has 1,000 Twitter followers, a well-read blog, and a high eBay seller score, a buyer might feel safer buying from this seller as opposed to in a totally anonymous environment like Craigslist.

To boost social engagement, sellers can give a small discount (up to $5, for example,) to shoppers who like a product or seller, or become their fan on Facebook.

Copious will also share products a buyer might be interested based on the person’s social media interactions. For example, post about a recent Bruce Springsteen concert and you might not be surprised to learn about a signed Springsteen poster that’s for sale on Copious.

There is also a section that conveys how strongly connected the buyer and seller are, either through Facebook likes, Twitter or some other measurement, then rates that connection on a scale of one to five.

The site, which went live today, takes a fee equivalent to a 10 percent cut of the transaction cost — it’s up to sellers whether to pass that on to buyers — which is trimmed to 3.5 percent during the launch phase.

Readers, what do you think of the Facebook features Copious is using on its site?

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